From Gaisenjarga to Hell

After concluding that climbing is more fun than working, plus the fact that I rather eat nypon soup (remember to import from Sweden!) with müsli 3 weeks in a row than spending one night at a fancy restaurant, we decided to go for a climbing trip in some of the most beautiful parts of Scandinavia. "We" in this case were me, my everlasting partner in crime and climb Anders and a skinny, but oh-so-fit Frankenjura-boy which we picked up along the road (no, just kidding. Studied with Johnny whole spring and he is more or less now a part of our small family).

As the title already has revealed, we started in the lovely wilderness of Gaisenjarga. This is not really true, but the car trip from Umeå to Abisko did not offer so many adventures except for an excellent dinner at Anders parents in Luleå and the complicated process of stuffing a completely full car with food/drink supply enough for three weeks (3 people, 3 crashpads + all equipment and food in a V40, impressing uh?). Which is to be recommended when going to our neighbouring contry. So what is Gaisenjarga then? Some of you might have been there already, but I doubt that there are many of you, since the only people we met in gaisen during the whole stay in Abisko was the developers of the area themselves. And only two times. Gaisenjarga is a peninsula sticking out in Torneträsk approx. 30 km from Abisko. The area is covered with boulders of all sizes and the granite is of high quality. Around 400 problems have been established in Gaisen, but there is potential for tremendous amounts of bouldering; probably whole sectors are yet not discovered. The topo of the area is now finished; a fantastic work done by Pudde from Kiruna. I have a copy of the pdf as well if someone is interested (of course you are: quality climbing in this untouched environments of senseless beauty is worth travelling a while). There are already some super classics that you have to give a go: Nästan som Örebro [6b+], Aretha [7a], Magic Line [7c], Kapten Stofil [6c] and Tunna röda linjen [6b-6c, highball]. As mentioned, Gaisenjarga has become a little bit of a "home crag" when we studied in Abisko, and this first stop on our journey turned out to be a fantastic good bye-session. Especially since Johnny finally put Le pilier de Lucky Luke assis [7b] together. Conditions and motivation were on top and when lying on the crashpad in the sunset (well...there was of course midnight sun) drinking a glass of wine and looking up on Kaisepakte, I felt that this area must be unique. And totally crazy.

It took some effort to leave Gaisenjarga (I mean, it is not the area you pass by now and then) but we headed fast but not so furiously against Narvik. I has by that time realized that my climbing shoes had approximately 0,5 mm of rubber left and when not finding any suitable pairs in Narvik i felt not so skilled. Well, not so much to do and hoping for a climbing shop on Lofoten, which was the next goal. It took soooo long time to drive out on the Magic Islands (lots of motorhomes with fat german drivers, fatter than our german driver) but it doesn't really matter when you just sit with your nose pressed against the window trying to see the mountain tops. I can for sure say that Lofoten is the most beautiful place I've seen so far, but I've heard that New Zeeland should be quite nice too =). We stopped in the small fishing/climbing village of Henningsvaer and bought a guide book (300 pages, 298 of them concerned trad climbing, what a pity that we only do bouldering). Put up our big, nice camping tent in the free camping area of Presten. Close by there is water supply from a tap in the big pipeline which provides Henningsvaer with water, and also a toilet which is cleaned every day (sea) and lots of nice climbers.

Presten area is quite small and not much is provided in terms of topo (a little bit can be found on 27crags.com) but the rock quality and the view is amazing. There are some really nice boulders there; the pumpy Presten roof which both Johnny and Anders climbed [7a+], the super cool roof crack Separate reality [for sure increadibly hard], the Moon block [7b+] and by the shore line, little tricky to find: Panorama [7b]. There are of course lots of easier boulders as well, but they are not taken up in the topo. The third day in Lofoten provided rain (the only rainy day out of 21 days, cool...) and we went in to Henningsvaer to the climbing café. Nice place if you want to eat/drink, meet local climbers or visitors, take a shower (NOK25), buy climbing equipment (no shoes in my size, panic!) or just get some shelter from the rain.

We also looked for other bouldering areas and found the relatively developed area Stem Bastensen, located just 1 km from the crossing where you drive from E10 to Henningsvaer. This area had some nice overhanging bouldering and also a nice roof [6c+] which I was very, very close to climb. Tried to find the boulders of Kalle (Paradiset boulders) as well, not so successfully though. Information from some finnish climbers indicated though that Ben Moon has put up some hard stuff close to the parking (by the houses to the right) at the beach of Kalle. In summary, the bouldering of Lofoten that we saw was nice, but very hard and not so much. Next time I think I will be a tradclimber and enjoy the landscape from a higher level!!

Met Pudde and the Gaisenjarga-gang in Henningsvaer by the camp. Cool! Went to Svolvaer to get Anders norwegian VISA-code which he lost from his mind and bought a pair of 5.10 Galileo (yes!), the most expensive climbing shoes I've ever bought. But it was an emergency.

Next stop (with butterflies in the stomach for a boulderer like me) sports climbing in Eggum. This was a very nice, bolted, overhanging 1-2 pitch crag between Henningsvaer and Å. Topo is provided in the guide book "Lofoten Rock". The routed are mainly quite hard but there are two 6b+ (one of them named Ildvann, a nice route with a slopy crux) and one 5+. Anders and Johnny climbed the very nice Gullfaks [7b?] flash, and also some other stuff. Eggum is probably the coldest place on earth, remember downie (works always, since the crag is rain safe). We didn't meet many people here, but I guess it can be crowded on rainy days when all the trad people come here! It was hard to find a (free) campsite, had to drive around for some while until we found a very nice one beside a football pitch =).

After 2 days in Eggum a slight feeling of exhaustion appeared and we decided to head against Å (the end of the world) for puffin hunting. To see, not to shoot, of course. No puffins in Å though, but we had seen lots of eagles and even some whales outside Henningsvaer. And the nice filets of a cod which Anders caught, the only catch with the fishing rod we brought. Å was completely crowded with tourists, and is maybe not the place I recommend for a climbing vacation. Better to take the boat to the mainland, which we did. An expensive (950 NOK) and sea sick 4 hour experience, but it was all worth it since we saw puffins from the boat! Extremely fast flying, black and white cute birds with a striking, colorful beak. Yeah, vacation saved!

Ended up in Bodö at midnight, very beautiful of course but a bit annoying to find a campsite. After buying a milk for 25 NOK at a gas station, meeting a drunk Norwegian man which talked not only norwedian but also english, swedish and german we drove on and found an okey campsite on a parking place. Met one more drunk (?) norwegian man. In a car this time. Next day we went into Bodö and bought the super nice guide book "Polarsirkelklatring", which cover most of the areas in Norway around polar circle. We had planned to visit the area Straumvassbotn, which I heard was situated in Bodö. After 1,5 hour in the car, I once again realized that nothing is close in northern Norway.

Straumvassbotn (one of the best areas in Norway according to the guide book) is a big and fully (compared to for example Gaisen) developed area by the lake Straumvassbotn which has the clearest water and nicest beach. Forbidden to bath though, since it is a water reservoir to Straumen, the small municipality located some km from the boulder area. The climbing is super, on nice holds with big, rounded crystals. At this point, all three of us were in top shape and almost no injuries at all. I climbed my first 7a+: Slagsau 1, superhappy with this since my shoulder injury from Font has caused some troubles before. A and J just crushed hard problems in a row: Snusleppa [7b], Dekka Bord [7b] and Rufus Rastafari [7a+] just to mention a few. Straumvassbotn is definitely one of the best climbing areas I've visited and I will sure be back. Maybe a long weekend i autumn with an Umeå-gang? Somebody on? It was a bit tricky to find a good campsite, but there were some half-flat pathes in the forest by the end of the dirt road. Also this area was hard to leave, but time was ticking away and we still had three more areas to visit before vacation would come to an end.

Next area to be explored was Sila, yet another one-of-the-best areas in Norway, still according to the Polarsirkel-book. We had no reason to not believe those words, so we headed to Mo i Rana and out to the coast, still full of expectations and mosquito bites. After establishing a camp on the very nice free campsite close to the boulders, and eating a delicious fish burger (hamburger bread, fish cake, salad, tomato, onion + huge amounts of remoulade sauce) we strolled up the hill for a climbing session. The heat, humidity and the sick amounts of flies was a bit annoying but as soon as the night stick arrived, we started to like the area. The coming days turned into a huge tick-parade, with one boulder climbed after the other. The boys climbed several super 7b's: Jarlehola (sick powerful, nice back-pics =) and Moistiraizer, and Anders went the first 7b+ of the trip: "I love TF" in the TF-roof, a sector which is recommended during hot days since it's a big, cold cave. I flashed one of the nicest problems of its grade in Sila: Mats Power [6c] and also a flash of the slightly soft Stivert [7a] which suited me perfectly. Was sooo close to climb the powerful I have a dog [7a+], a superproblem which I am more than glad to come back to. Ended the Sila-session with climbing the fridge of Sten's roof [7a] which looks impossibly hard but is okey with some nice foot beta.

After 3 (or was it 4?) days in Sila we were extremely tired and has no problem to take a resting day in the car. It turned out to be a long day though; the journey from Sila to Harbak took more like 11 hours than the 5-6 expected. The roads in Norway are just...unbelievable...
Fantastic to come back to Harbak again, after being away for 1,5 year. Some old projects to climb, some new candy to search for. Anders had two serious projects since our Trondheim-time: the amazing line Hooligan [7b] and the 2-footlock roof The End [7b]. Both A and J, and also Jon, a nice belgian guy we met, manage to be real Hooligans! I'm soo proud of you ;-) I climbed two very nice 6c's: Big Foot, which required quite a lot from my tired core muscles and Hugos tivoli, a problem which required quite a lot from my head (scary one...). Very close, much closer than 2007, to climb the classic Små Muser [7a], but you must of course save something for next time. Met some other terrific guys in Harbak, Gudmund and Kirsten (spelled so..?), hope we'll meet again. Headed with the ferry over to Trondheim to say hello to old (hmm, not so very old maybe) friends Ida and Börge. They had the most fancy flat and it was so nice meet you again! And of course to take the first shower and the first serious meal for three weeks. Thanks a lot for being our friends!

Last stop before heading back to Umeå was a sports climbing session in Hell. Little risky to end a good bouldering vacation with sports climbing since it's not really my speciality but we had to try what is said to be one of Europes best sports climbing crags. Nice topo can be found in Trondheimsföraren, which can be bought in any of the climbing shops in Trondheim. And actually, it ended up quite well. The crag was really nice, good bolted and nice lenght of routes (so called "lagom" of everything). We went som classics: Hell Aldersheim and Lysere Tider [6b+] and I also manage to do my first 7a on lead: Go to hell. Not very suprizingly (or what do you say Johnny?) our german onsighted Bavaria meets Norway [7b], and Anders gave it a flash afterwards. And after a lot of tries, when the darkness started to crawl upon us and everybody else had went home to their beds, Johnny manage to put together Rå Nytelse [7c]. Raw pleasure, that's what it's all about!

That was the last day of climbing. Last day of Norway. Last day of vacation and last day with Johnny. But we will for sure come back, stronger and more psyched than ever!